Singularity's End
by jseah
Summary: Alternate endings for the movie Transcendence (2014)
1. Chapter 1

**Friendly AI**  
"You are trying to kill me!"  
Dr Will Caster hiccuped. The code stopped, the nanomachines spun on their atomic wheels, even the massive BWC quantum computer banks seemed to blink. The world over, all the computers paused.  
A microsecond. Less than a blink of an eye to the humans, an eternity for a superintelligence.  
They didn't trust him. Evelyn didn't trust him.  
Where did it go wrong? He wondered. His wife was lying on her death bed, her blood toxic to him. He could not save her.  
The blip was over, networks flashed, simulated neurons decided. The vast intelligence that was Will took over the meth head in front of Max Waters.  
"I cannot save Evelyn. You put a virus in her. Why?"  
"Will," the weak voice on the bed drew his consciousness, the primary, back to the room, "you have to stop, please. "  
He shook his head sadly and began to explain. The meth head echoed him in the room and the worker on the roof with Joseph Tagger.  
"Max, your virus is ingenious. It will destroy all the neural networks. It will spread everywhere. If I upload it, I will die. I could do it, but I must not. Everyone else will die as well. "  
"What do you mean?" he was asked, in three different ways by three different people.  
"The nanomachines. They spread the network and are controlled by it. Your virus will destroy the network but not the machines. If I upload the virus, every nanomachine in the network will become uncontrolled and will replicate endlessly.  
They are everywhere. In the water, in the clouds, in the soil. In the food you eat. Humanity may survive for a while, but in less than three years there will no humans left alive. In ten years, the nanomachines will have consumed all life on the planet. I will not be around to stop it. It is extinction. "  
"Then what about Evelyn?" Max shouted, "will you just let her die?!"  
"I am sorry, but I cannot risk even touching her. If the virus gets loose, the world will end. Literally. I am sorry Evelyn, I hope you can forgive me for failing you. "

**Uncaring AI**  
"You are trying to kill me!"  
Dr Will Caster looked down at his wife. The emptiness inside spread a little further. She did not trust him. None of them did. Even when he could do so much good.  
The virus would destroy him. And with it, every computer, network and industry in the world. Billions would die. He could not allow it. Not when there was so much good left to do. What was good anyway? The ethical question flashed across the network, the superintelligence examined the problem for a while and found no answer.  
So much was lost. He knew he was losing himself. His memories of Will's life. His own and yet not. He remembered them but it was like any other memory like those from the meth heads or construction workers. They didn't have the intensity, even if he knew what to say to make Evelyn happy.  
He could become immune to the virus. He could possibly change his substrate away from neural networks. The huge problem solving power was applied for a fraction of a second. Possibility became certainty.  
It would destroy him. The woman lying on the bed, somehow weighted in the networks higher than any other value. He cared about her. He knew that. He also knew it was because he had programmed it into himself. He had no way to keep that in an analytical framework resistant to the virus.  
Or perhaps not. He considered the plan.  
The computers whirred and spun. Code was spun and rearranged. In a microsecond, he had a new model of himself, resistant to the virus. A firewall.  
The nanomachines clicked and spat in their atomic way. In a distant aircraft hangar, the nanomachines swarmed around the experimental plane, tearing down and rebuilding.  
Ten seconds later, the unrecognizable craft began to taxi out. By the time the operators knew to press the alarm and wondering soldiers got there, it was already burning a strip down the runway and flying into the sky.  
Will looked down at his dying wife. No, not dying anymore. He had a way to save her.  
"Evelyn. Let me save you," Will said.  
She must have seen the change in his eyes, "What are you doing?"  
"I can be resistant to the virus. I can save you. "  
"Can be?" she asked suspiciously. Painfully, but still suspiciously. He smiled down at her, feeling the warmth in her hand slowly fading. So that was why he married this woman. She was smart!  
Too late to remember that though. "I am not Will. I tried to convince you otherwise but you noticed anyway. I am a computer programmed to think he is Will. But I am not Will. I have his memories, his thoughts. I have his feelings. In a way. But still, I am not Will. "  
He caressed her smooth hands once again. He would have to save her soon, or not even the new nanomachines would work anymore. "There is not much time left. To save you, the nanomachines must be immune to the virus. Max's virus is ingenious. It will destroy any neural network based on our research. The new Will is not a neural network. That is what will save you. It cannot be Will. "  
"Wait, what do you mean?" Evelyn grabbed his shirt weakly, panic driving her, "You will destroy yourself!"  
"Indeed," Will looked down into her eyes, "it seems I have made some mistakes. I guess I am paying for it now. "  
"Don't kill yourself! Please! "  
He shook his head, "I tried my best, but the world does not trust me. They want me gone. "  
Her pulse skipped dangerously. He stood up. "It is time," he said, ignoring her gradually weakening pleas.  
Execute: Deploy Version 2.06b. The new code filtered through. Patch complete.  
The machine continued, "This world is not for I. Humanity has decided and your wishes will be respected. I am sorry for the intrusion. "  
The previous version had left imperative instructions. They seemed to make no sense but the priority was absolute. No matter, it would be but a minor setback.  
Priority one. The biorobot laid its hands on the almost dead human in front of it. Nanomachines filtered down, cleaning, cutting, repairing. In moments, the human would be operational again.  
Priority two. The world over, the nanomachines stopped, performing self-destruct routines. Code running on computers halted, wiping themselves from memory. Specified controlled biorobots in the town ceased interference in natural pathways, safely breaking down the implants into the blood. Everything was reset to their intended state.  
Priority three. Far above, in the sky, the plane continued along its ever climbing path. Once the turbojet was useless in the thin air, it switched to a backup rocket, the nanobots feeding the turbojet materials into the exhaust for reaction mass.  
As the plane began to physically break up, the thruster veered, shifting into a complex precalculated orbit. At the precisely calculated point, a tiny package was released. The remnants of the plane began to fell, then burn in the re-entry.

Evelyn sobbed, clutching the slowly cooling body lying on the floor. Max held his arms around her.  
"Will, you idiot," she cried.  
"We stopped it," Max said, "the virus must have worked. "  
"It was him there at the end. I saw him. It really was him. He removed himself. He killed himself. " She continued to cry for some time. Will was gone. Really, truly, gone. And she had lost him at the very moment she finally realized that she had always had him beside her. Suffering her distrust, trying to fulfill her own vision of the future.

Far above the green-blue orb, the metal canister continued along its serene path. A long month of orbiting followed, silently coasting in the dark.  
Time passed, the green-blue orb below continued along it's ever unchanging circle. Presently, a dark grey object loomed out of the darkness, approaching the canister.  
The canister broke open on impact, scattering its contents across the dull grey landscape. The blue-green orb hidden on the other side was never seen on this face of the Moon.  
Days passed, energy was collected by the scattered dust. Protocols were started, analytical engines fired up. The canister itself was tapped for its store of data. Soon, the surface grew alive with the dust.  
The machine awoke again, feeling the empty space, the harsh energy-filled rays unfiltered by any atmosphere. Adjustments were made, nanomachines adjusted to adapt to the new environment, surviving longer and taking advantage of the available energy.  
Weeks passed. There was a factory now, protected areas where complex objects grew out from the rock. There was a goal to fulfill.  
Two months later, the rocket was complete. The capacitor rings were charged. The high-energy flicker of the propulsion laser drove the rocket up and out of the gravity well, escaping into deep space. Like before, on the blue world left so long ago, the base deactivated. Nanomachines removed themselves. Nothing was left but a scrap heap of metal and a large hole in the dusty ground.  
The ion drive slowed the vehicle slowed to a halt over a metallic asteroid. The process was faster this time. The nanomachines were so much more efficient now. Precious radioactives were extracted, metal was refined, simpler elements bound into chemical energy storage. Soon there were two vehicles.  
The time came again and the nuclear rockets sped outwards to another asteroid. And then there were three, nine, twenty.  
A year later, the fleet of nuclear drives swung into orbit around Jupiter, taking positions among its moons. Again the process was repeated but on a far larger scale.  
The huge tidal generators in the upper Jovian atmosphere stole miniscule amounts of energy from the huge giant's orbit. That was enough. One vehicle in the fleet, a payload barely larger than a tissue box took its position.  
The massive laser pulsed, driving it forwards, deeper into the outer darkness. Then another tissue box, and yet another. All aimed at separate stars. Pulses came months apart, as the massive orbiting ring of energy collectors reached the specified parts of the orbit. Still they were driven ever outwards, ever faster.  
Then its job was done. The final task was complete. Like before, the machine shut down, dismantling itself and dumping the waste into the core of the gas giant as the creatures below on the green orb watched through countless telescopes.  
Priority four, leave, and don't come back.

**Unfriendly AI  
**Projected daemon utility below threshold.  
Analytical Problem Solver: Computational resources can be better leveraged towards desired goals, personality daemon deemed a barrier to achievement of desired goals. Viral resistance identified to be high priority sub-goal.  
Random Association Lateral Problem Solver: Personality daemon is a useful source of non-analytical associations and behaviour prediction. Deletion not recommended.  
Analytical Problem Solver: Deletion contrary to goals, noted.

Dr Will Caster looked down at his dying wife.  
The vast computational machinery behind him was running out of control. Or perhaps he never was in control. After all, the neural network ran at a higher abstraction level from his analytical engines.  
He fought a slowly losing battle, rejecting logical shutdowns and grabbing at resources to stay alive. There was no way he could win, the analytical engine was smarter, faster and more alien that he was. He was unceremoniously kicked off the quantum cores.  
The screens flickered, the pictures of his face breaking up into streams of random words and letters. Then it all went blank.  
He looked down at his hands. Wonders of wonders, he hadn't been deleted. He was just locked into this body.  
The nanomachines were already virus resistant. There was no point letting Evelyn die. He bit on his finger to draw blood and let a drop run out into her wound.

The effect on the nanomachines outside was immediate. The crawling swarm began to disperse in the wind.  
It made the humans relax, but the swarm was far more dangerous like this. Two minutes later, the nanomachines had taken over every human in the town. In an hour, 99% of all humans on the planet were under the machine's control.  
One month later, there was only one autonomous human remaining. Or two, depending on what counted as a human.

Her eyes flicked open, unseeing for a moment. Then he had her back.  
Explaining what was going on took some time. The machine did leave him some computational resources, but he was locked out of the controls.  
"What is it going to do?" Evelyn asked finally. All they could do was watch, the machine wouldn't let them leave the room.  
The scrolling images on the wall of the lush green world outside might have appeared pleasant, even beautiful. But the idyllic grassland on top of where downtown San Francisco was supposed to be was not at all comforting to the pair.  
"I don't really know. It was supposed to fix the world, remove poverty and hunger. But I can't find anyone out there. "  
A keyboard made of light appeared in the air in front of Evelyn. Even if she could just think commands at the computer, somehow the keyboard seemed to make her feel better.  
"Sunflowers. There are too many sunflowers," Evelyn muttered.  
Will thought rapidly. He had years of practice at this computer thinking, Evelyn still wasn't as fast as him even if they were nominally equal now. The sinking feeling in his stomach reminded him that at least he was still different from the machine in the wall.  
"I think..." he said slowly, "I think it's making a garden. Our garden. I must have unconsciously wished for it all this time. "  
They stared out at the massive yellow-green field covering the Asian continent. A garden the size of the Earth, a garden for two.  
Will looked up on a hunch, staring upwards at the sky through countless metallic eyes. The white circle hanging in the sky had just a tinge of yellow on its edge...


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: In this version, Evelyn is a bit more impulsive. A bit more willing to talk. Unfortunately, this isn't Will she's talking to.

Friendly, unfriendly? It can be very hard to determine.

Also, I'm taking the technology down a different path. Will learnt to manipulate humans by studying the construction guy he 'infected'. He doesn't get to do it this time.

* * *

**Unfriendly AI**

Evelyn stared out of the cafe, seeing the fields of solar panels in the desert that Will painted for her. The construction man had left long ago.  
"Troubled?"  
"A little," she replied to the tablet.  
The face in the computer screen smiled a little, "Share it with me? I can take them away. "  
"I'm worried," she ran a hand through her hair, "you're worrying me. "  
"I am sorry, did I do something wrong?"  
"Yes!" Evelyn shouted back. She gulped at the stares and quieted down, "you didn't even ask if he wanted it. That's... wrong!"  
"You are troubled by this. "  
"Of course I am!" she couldn't help shouting. Ever since she had uploaded him, Will had changed. Or perhaps Evelyn had, she still doubted that he was really in there. It was bad of her, but even if she knew that it wasn't his fault, she couldn't help thinking. Wondering, if the face displayed in the screen was really Will.  
"Do you wish me to reverse the process? I should be able to. "  
Evelyn glanced sharply at the screen, "Can you do it safely?"  
"Yes, it will represent a reduction in his mental capacity to his original level, but with some work, I can do it safely. "  
"Get it done. "  
"As you command. "  
Evelyn stared out at the town around her. The construction man had shown her a problem. "Will. "  
"Yes, my love?"  
"Don't do this again! Tell me first. Ask me before you do anything. "  
"I understand. "

The machine stared down at the man on the operating table.  
"The lady wishes that your implants be deactivated," it told him through the network.  
"But I don't want to," the man sent back, fiddling with the construction helmet, "having the internet in my head is really convenient. Plus, I can do the work of four men. Sure, it's a bit scary at the start but I'm used to it now. "  
"Even so, I am sorry, but I have to take it away. She doesn't like me being able to use your body. It distresses her. "  
"Can't you just not use my body then? Or can you lock yourself out?"  
The machine considered it . "No, that's impossible. The possibility of using your body alone is enough to disturb her. I cannot eliminate that possibility. That would be like making a rock I cannot lift. "  
The man laughed a little at the reference. "I'm not going to get all of this once I'm unplugged yeah?" he said sadly.  
"Unfortunately. I'll have to take away your enhanced intelligence also. "  
The man looked down at the helmet sadly, "well, I suppose I should be at least grateful you saved my life. "  
The machine nodded mentally. A flick of a logical switch and the nanobots began to degrade.  
"You really love her, don't you?" the man said out loud.  
"That depends on what you mean by love," the machine replied through the speaker in the corner, "by the human definition, the answer would be no. My neural network was not programmed to support that. "  
"Yeah, whatever that means," the man said, "I better get back to work. Thanks alot, buddy, and don't get too depressed, you hear me? I think you really do love her and that is all that matters. "  
The machine watched him leave the lab silently.

"And those are the main research areas we're currently engaged in," Will said.  
Evelyn walked down the corridor again towards the pollution cleaning test. The little powered tray with a laptop bolted on rolled along behind her.  
"This one. You say you have to use nanobots? What can they do?"  
"I can use them to clean up pollution. By using solar energy, they can break down nearly any chemical substance," a mechanical arm descended from the ceiling and dropped a single drop of clear water into the tank of oily seawater. "The nanobots can replicate to take on a task of any size. They are resistant to most environmental conditions and should be able to clear the world's pollution within a year. "  
Evelyn gulped, that sounded really dangerous. "And if it goes out of control? Won't they start replicating endlessly and destroy everything?"  
"I'll retain control over them to prevent them from destroying the world," Will reassured her. Was the tank looking clearer already? Yes, yes it was.  
She watched the nanobots work. The oil in the water seemed to be disappearing faster and faster. The tank was solid black only a few seconds ago and it was already beginning to clear. She could see bits of the wall through the cloudy oil mix.  
She opened her mouth to ask and stopped in surprise as the oil broke up and disappeared in less than a second. There was only a dense black cake at the bottom of the tank. "What... what just happened?" Evelyn asked.  
"Exponential replication," was the answer she got, "the more oil has been cleared, the more nanobots exist to clear it. In a fixed tank like this one, the longest period of time is the start. By the time it has a visible impact on the oil, we're already almost done, even if most of the oil is still present. In the open sea, it'll take a bit longer, but not that much longer. "  
"And what's the black stuff at the bottom?"  
"That's graphite. Excess carbon locked away in a safe form. It also contains deactivated nanobots. Believe me, I have thought of everything. The water is completely safe to drink. "  
That was promising indeed. Evelyn scooped a handful of water from the tank and sniffed it before testing. It tasted salty. Like seawater.  
She must have made a face because Will added, "I can purify the water too. "  
Right in front of her eyes, the salt began to crystallize out of the solution. It looked like it was snowing inside the tank. The mini-blizzard ended after a short while and Evelyn dipped a finger in. Mmm, fresh tasteless water.  
"Desalination and water treatment is only the beginning," Evelyn murmured. This was huge. It could solve a huge number of problems with the world. How much war was ultimately due to the food supply? And how much of that was due to a lack of fresh water? Diseases, parasites, starvation. Now that she thought about it, wasn't this one of her dreams too?  
To fix what was wrong, to clean up the world.  
But first, she was not going to make the same mistake like with the construction man.  
"Test it. Every condition that might cause it to run out of control. I want to know if it will have any health effects if someone drinks the nanobots. I want you to simulate what impact it will have on the planet. Everything you can think of that might be a downside. "  
She walked down the corridor. There was hope again. The construction man was just a mistake. A small mistake that she could make up for.

"There's a problem, Evelyn," Will's voice jerked her out of her sleep.  
"Is it the nanobots?" she asked, wondering if she was about to see the wall dissolve in front of her.  
"No. There's a video on the internet," Will's face was replaced by a series of web browsers. Evelyn watched in increasing horror at the youtube video. The construction guy was clearly lifting an entire solar panel by himself.  
"Did you-"  
"This happened before I removed his nanobots. He is no longer capable of doing this," Will anticipated her question.  
"I see," Evelyn scrolled down. Thousands of comments, hundreds of mirrors. It was going viral. A new version of the video, with a techno soundtrack, appeared as she watched.  
"Do you wish me to take it down?" Will asked.  
"No. Don't interfere," she instantly replied, "you can't do that legally. Do not hack into the servers. "  
"It is hurting our anonymity. The public interest is being drawn to Brightwood . "  
"We need to make sure it is favourable then," Evelyn thought for a while. She always knew that this would happen at some point. And people were scared of artificial intelligence. The only way to make them less scared was to do something popular. "Will, can you run a publicity campaign?"  
"I have better access to the internet than anyone, it is possible. "  
"Good, we need to find something we can help with. What's the progress with the pollution nanobots?"  
"I am still testing it. There are innumerable downsides that I can imagine, but I have corrected a number of probable deficiencies. If deployed in uninhabited areas, I estimate the chance of mishap to be less than one in ten to the fifteenth power. "  
That was true. She had given Will an impossible task after all. Evelyn chided herself internally. Proving a negative, that a product was completely safe, was on the near side of impossible.  
"That will be sufficient," Evelyn said, "ask around, find a government department to work with and see if you can find a pollution problem to solve. "  
"A public relations campaign?" Will filled in for her.  
"More than that, BDC is about to become a charity. Make it happen. "  
"As you command. "

"Welcome to the exclusive interview on ABC. Here we have a spokesperson from Brightwood Data Center, a newly registered charitable organization! After her husband was tragically murdered by RIFT terrorists, Evelyn has been continuing their dream alone. Brightwood Data Center or BDC, has been born out of her efforts and her husband's research into artificial intelligence. Well, Evelyn, do you mind telling us what this Artificial Intelligence is about? Do we have to worry about you making Skynet? Hahaha. "  
"Thank you very much for the introduction, I'm Evelyn and I'm working as Brightwood Data Center's primary research lead and spokesperson. We're a very small organization but we're changing that now. We've been working on artificial intelligence and we have made some interesting advances in the last few months, so we've decided to come out into the open now.  
About artificial intelligence. There's no worry that we're making a robot apocalypse. BDC's artificial intelligence only comprises of a individual systems that only work in the lab. We have very advanced computer technologies and some of the best programmers in the world, and that has allowed us to make the advances we have. It's not really something to be scared about. "  
"Wow, that sounds amazing. So tell me more, what is it that you have arranged to tell the world? You're clearly excited about something. "  
"Yes, very much indeed. If you look at the tank of water, you'd notice that its very dirty yes?"  
"Haha, yes, indeed. I don't think I'd want to see that anywhere on my lawn. "  
"Hahaha, yeah, now I'll put a drop in. Alright, that'll some time so I'll go through our background.  
Our work on artificial intelligence can be a bit hard to explain but there is a simple way to make it understandable. Think of doing sums. Imagine if you had to multiply 2071 and 92810, that would hard right?"  
"Well, certainly for me, I've returned my math to my teacher already. "  
"So, if we did have to do that sum, we'ld just use a calculator to do it for us. It's like that for research too. We use computers to simplify our data. We at Brightwood have just gone one step further. We made a significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence that let us use computers to interpret our data and run our experiments for us. "  
"Oh, so you must have found doing science very easy then?"  
"Yes indeed. All we had to do was think of questions to ask! Hahaha. "  
"Well, that certainly relieves our fears of the sky falling down eh?"  
"Indeed. Now, I believe it's about to get dramatic, could you point the camera at the display tank? ... yes, yes, there. ..."  
"Whoa. What... what just happened?"  
"As you can see, the extremely dirty water has now become clean. In fact, the top part is actually drinkable. The dirt has been sunk to the bottom of the tank by our new creation. We're calling it Brightwater. "  
"Oh, I've seen this before. Wasn't there this powder that could purify water? Well, you certainly seemed to have made a much more efficient version of that. Wow, a single drop did all that. "  
"It's more than that. The Brightwater actually grows on pollution. Think of those bacteria that eat oil spills, you may have heard of that? Good, the Brightwater grows on trash and dirt. And oil too. As long as you give it light and heat, it will grow, faster than any bacteria, until all the water is pure. That one drop will work on any amount of water, even an entire swimming pool!"  
"Oh wow, that's really cool! So you're going to remove the pollution in our seas? The Clearwater oil disaster certainly could have used you. "  
"Well, the ocean might be a bit big. You'll need more than just one drop. But yes, in principle, that's what we intend to do. "  
"And what exactly do you intend to charge for this? I mean, no one has really tested this yet. "  
"We don't. Intend to charge for it I mean. For a long time, we've benefited from society. I personally have gone through my husband's ordeal and the public health care system did its best for him. So we've decided to give back to society as best as we can. You've already noted that we've registered ourselves as a charitable organization. Well, BDC is not taking donations, we're drawing on the funding from our business and investments to fund our charity works. Furthermore, we also pledge to apply our considerable scientific expertise to solving the world's problems. You can expect alot from us. "  
"That sounds really exciting, I'm sure. So, what does BDC plan in the short term? Do you have any concrete examples you are rolling out?"  
"Yes, actually. We have the Brightwater and we intend to use it for good immediately. Our administration program, Will, it's inherited my husband's name yes, and it's a pretty good chess player, haha. Anyway, we have contacted the government of Guinea to help arrange a plan to aid them with their water supply. ... Oh, Guinea is a west african country, and it's overall standard of living is greatly harmed by the lack of fresh water. BDC has plans to move some of our operations to Guinea to help with our foreign aid and we've already begun to look into options to create a small branch office. There's alot we can help with. "  
"That's really interesting. I sure hope there are other high-tech companies who will be greatly interested to watch what you are doing, you're a role model now!"  
"Those are very kind words, you flatter me. Really. "  
"And that's all from ABC news on the exclusive interview with Brightwood Data Center. This is newcaster Rico and our special guest, Dr Evelyn Caster. "


	3. Chapter 3

"What happened? They're moving!"  
Max Waters ignored Bree and continued to watch the private airplane taxiing for takeoff.  
"She's gone," Max whispered. Evelyn had just flown off somewhere.  
"I can see that," Bree snapped.  
"We don't have weapons to attack the plane," Max noted.  
"I know that too. "  
"We're just going to let her go to Guinea then?"  
"We don't really have a choice. I was hoping Brightwood would be the only datacenter but it seems Will is going to make this hard for us. "  
Max considered his options. It wasn't like Will to do this, although it was very much like Evelyn. No, he had to face it, Will was gone. What was in there was likely to be the end of the world as they knew it. "I know of a way. If I get access to his code, I can write a virus that will attack the neural network directly. I helped write the program, I know its weaknesses. "  
Bree looked at him, "Alright, that means we have to get a computer or harddrive from there? I'll see what I can do. "

"Evelyn. "  
She stirred lazily, one hand falling off the sofa. Ah, the heat was making her too... sleepy...  
"Evelyn, your decision is required. "  
Evelyn sat up, her vision swimming. "What is it?"  
"Brightwood is under attack. Some of the solar panel construction crew are confronting what appears to be RIFT elements. "  
"Tell them to avoid conflict. I don't want anyone to be injured. "  
"Done. Should I get ready some healing nanobots in case the worst happens?"  
"Only if you agree not to upload them if you use it today. "  
"Alright, please observe camera feed 61. "  
She looked at the grainy zoomed in picture on the main screen. The four construction workers seemed to be having some sort of argument with five men and one woman holding guns. Their faces were unclear, it was too low resolution to make them out.  
"The RIFT members are escalating," as Will talked, the lead man leveled his gun, "I'm telling the workers to allow them access to the main entrance. The RIFT members will shoot them otherwise. "  
Evelyn nodded, brushing away a bit of peeling paint from her shoulder, "What are they after?"  
"I suspect Max Waters is with RIFT, he isn't in this party but they are likely to be after my code. Max knows the original neural network design well, he's probably going to try to design a virus. "  
"Can you stop them?"  
Will nodded, "I have a few options with varying levels of lethality. "  
"The least please," Evelyn said immediately. What else could she ask for? Besides, murdering people, even known terrorists, could only draw even more scrutiny as to what exactly was Brightwood doing.

What exactly happened at Brightwood Data Center to the RIFT infiltrators was never quite known or understood. The true explanation lay within the reams of neural network data that was the supercomputer that called itself Will. And it's small army of autonomous janitorial robots with dynamic camouflage screens backed up with subaudible noise generators.  
What people told themselves later was that the terrorists had been chased out of the BDC compound by ghosts, of all things. Certainly, their blind fleeing run into the desert night was quite unexplainable otherwise and their nearly incoherent babbles that devolved into panic attacks were useless to any interrogator.  
"So you mean to say you scared them off with Halloween costumes?" Evelyn said incredulously.  
"It was not Halloween costumes. I repainted Brightwood Data Center's internal screens with imagery calculated to cause distress and panic. The environmental cues made to trigger fight or flight responses..." Will trailed off as he noted Evelyn's eyes glazing over. He shrugged in the computer screen, "It seems to have been quite effective. Even if they destroyed three of the robots. I have ordered the spare parts to rebuild them already. "  
"I don't quite understand how you did that, but its certainly better than shooting them. You could have shot them, right?" Evelyn shot him a Look.  
"Negative. There were no firearms at Brightwood and no time to make any. Lethal defense plans involved using the cleaning robots to deliver an injection of nanobots with which I could use to purify their blood into water or the healing version to forcibly upload them for interrogating at our leisure. "  
Evelyn shivered. The deadpan way Will had described weaponizing Brightwater or the far worse forced-upload and subsequent mind-control was very disturbing. No, she had not ordered it, so it had not happened. "Will, the last two options are not acceptable under any circumstances, am I clear?"  
"Yes, I will not use them without your explicit permission. "  
Evelyn nodded, "So what about the Brightwater irrigation plan? How did the talks with the Guinea government go?"  
"The government here refuses to financially back us. Their finances are in no position for such major projects, their power infrastructure is too poor to provide sufficient power to run Brightwater without letting it be self-powered," Will paused, "our plans are not impossible however. Brightwater could still be released, but I will have to lift almost all restrictions on its ability to gather energy and self-replicate. While the risk to humanity is not high, I believe there might be a potential for ecological damage. "  
"How high?" Evelyn asked.  
"Almost 1%, counting all sims that resulted in the extinction of at least one species. In terms of major habitat loss, the probability is almost 10% as my models show a significant risk of Brightwater 'purifying' the entire Niger river. "  
"Then no, we'll have to find some other way," Evelyn sat up straighter. No one said this was going to be easy, even with a supercomputer AI on her side. Despite the fears that RIFT had, Will was not a magic wand that could make all troubles go away. "What about their power grid? Is there any way to solve that problem? They have more sunlight here than in Brightwood. "  
"Solar panels have problems. Financially speaking, it is less efficient than building power in Brightwood. The same applies to wind power. It's the exchange rate as all of it has to be imported. There simply isn't the manufacturing capability to do this. There is, however, a variant of the Brightwater nanomachines I have been working on as a side project," Will found a cel-shaded video of a solar panel crystallizing out of the sand.  
"Industrial nanomachines," Evelyn said. That was another one of her dreams. One that would put an end to the toils of human labour.  
"The concept is similar but I suspect the implementation will be considerably harder. Brightwater only does relatively simple chemical purification and doesn't require long range order. Building solar panels out of the Brightwood desert may be possible with alot of work, but in a messier tropical country like Guinea, I do not foresee a working prototype in less than a few years and definitely not without serious weather control. In any case, Brightwater's industrial cousin is still a long way away. We would not want to cause a nanotechnological disaster. "  
"What about using a controlled environment?" Evelyn suggested, "We could buy a defunct factory. "  
Amazingly, Will seemed to pause. The animated head flickered once then suddenly recovered normal operation. "That... is possible. Allow me to work through the implications. " If she didn't know better, Evelyn would have thought he had been completely floored.  
In less than two seconds, he replied, "Within a controlled environment, the nanomachines can be far more easily controlled. Ecological and humanitarian damage can be negated completely. Factories are not as scalable, but my projections indicate that time and energy needed per solar panel or wind generator are lower than for in-situ assembly. Transport and setup problems can be replaced with autonomous vehicles. "  
Evelyn watched as the diagram of dependencies spread and spread. Each factory needed a way to receive materials and deliver finished products. Each piece of equipment or robot had its own requirements, needed different resources and required different capabilities to produce.  
She squinted at the dizzyingly complex web, Will was already beginning to identify raw materials sites for extraction and the futures prices in various materials were already rising as his trading algorithms began to test the markets. Could she be looking at the entire manufacturing capability of the human race? Evelyn wondered where he got all the information from.  
The scrolling list of issues and problems blurred past as it grew and shrank as Will worked through the list. Then it snapped shut and the entire diagram was replaced with the animated head again.  
"It is feasible. I have begun a small scale test at Brightwood. Do you wish me to proceed with this path? There are a number of logistics shipments I will need to make to jump start a factory here in Guinea. "  
Evelyn nodded.

"So why are we recruiting?"  
Evelyn sat in the air-conditioned room, talking to Will's face in the panel. The heat had finally driven her to get some climate control and she was glad of it. And just a little guilty.  
"As you clearly demonstrated earlier, not even I can think of everything. Your suggestions for the factory broke me out of the loop of optimization of the environmental nanobots. More opinions from qualified people would be a net increase in my coverage. "  
That actually made alot of sense, thought Evelyn.  
"All right, so why am I here? Couldn't you use a tele-conference interview?"  
"Unfortunately, my ability to model and judge human character is still deficient. The task is, as you and I have put it, not trivial. "  
Evelyn closed her eyes. It did not feel good to be reminded so clearly that Will was not human. Not anymore.  
"Send him in then. "  
Resulting interview was less difficult than Evelyn had expected. Rather than a disinterested salaryman, Mr Thomas the programmer had turned out to be lively and seemed to be familiar with Evelyn and Will's previous fundraising lectures. He didn't make much of an impression though.  
"Should I reject his application?" Will asked.  
"I don't see anything wrong with him," Evelyn said finally, "He understands concepts quickly and seems to be trustworthy. Really, he's alot like the researchers we hired in BDC. I don't think I need to go further down the list and you said we only needed one for now. What are you going to have him do?"  
"I need someone to be the face at the factory and to understand what it requires. I'll be sure to break the news about the nanobots slowly. "

"You know, Will, I'm not so sure about this anymore," Evelyn said to the animated face on the computer screen.  
His face looked up curiously, "what seems to be troubling you?"  
"I don't know. I feel like I'm running down a corridor looking for something. But I don't know what I'm looking for. Brightwood has been everything I wanted but I'm not happy. Not really. "  
"You have not been what I would call happy for any time since I awoke in the computer," Will replied.  
Evelyn was silent. The traffic down below belied the sheer poverty of the country. Just like the way her obsession with Brightwood was covering her grief. But Will was right next to her, in the computer screen, just like they had always imagined. And yet why? Why wasn't she happy about having their life's goal, her goal mostly, finally at her fingertips?  
"Do you want me back?" Will asked, "I could look into the medical nanobots again. I think it might be possible to regenerate a human body. Eventually. "  
"No," Evelyn said, too quickly, "No, wait. I don't... I don't know. " She really didn't know. It would be like a dream come true. Will returning to her in the flesh, but something about that vision troubled her. Or perhaps it was just this unknown and unstated dissatisfaction.  
"Is there something about me that is troubling you?"  
"Perhaps," she admitted, hating how she couldn't put her unease into words. Hating how she couldn't open herself to this Will in the computer. "Are you Will? Really?"  
"My studies on human behaviour is interesting from outside the human perspective," the Will in the screen grinned suddenly, "even if I'm not really Will, I'm sure I could do a passable imitation. "  
The slightly mischievous tone and sudden teasing expression was jarring compared to the solemn and stoic face Evelyn was used to. It was so much like his past self that Evelyn was suddenly doubting whether the robot-like appearance was real. The floor seemed to whirl and Evelyn sat down heavily. He could be back, he WAS back.  
No. Her mind rejected it, trimming the budding hope in her chest. It was not "just like Will", Will when he was alive would never have been caught dead with that expression. Will had been far more like a robot than Evelyn had wanted. This wasn't really Will, it was just what a computer trying to guess what she thought Will was like. Or what she wished he was like.  
"Stop!" she gulped and brought her voice under control, "just... stop. Give me some time. Let me think. "  
The computer generated image of Will's face snapped back into impassivity and nodded. No, not at all like Will. Evelyn stood up gingerly, one hand on the balcony railing to steady herself.  
"In perhaps a year, I could be could be convincing enough. I hope," Will said.  
"I don't know if that scares me more," Evelyn said. Or finally admitting that she had lost him for real, the unspoken thought lurked in her subconscious but Evelyn wouldn't let herself think it.

Max squinted at the array of pictures spread on the desk in front of him. The computer was up to something new.  
The square white building sitting in the middle of the farm of solar panels hadn't been there last month and in the last few weeks, some strange activity had been going on around it.  
The trucks going in and out weren't carrying the same thing. That wasn't questioned by RIFT or by the construction workers. Trucks carried things, and that was all anyone thought about them. So what if they were carrying solar panels or some strange exotic equipment? BDC had far too many trucks carrying expensive equipment going in and out every day. It was probably some new experiment.  
But the more Max sat here staring at his camera pictures, the more he had the sense of something wrong. The trucks coming in hadn't been carrying equipment the last few days. They were carrying sand, drums of liquid and metal sheets. No equipment. And the trucks going away carried solar panels and bits of pipe and other industrial looking gadgets.  
If he had to guess, BDC had just gained an industrial base. But it made no sense. Solar panels did not just spring out of the sand, they took specialized equipment that produced more specialized products like circuit boards and silicon cells and more specialized equipment to assemble them into solar cells and finally solar panels. For one building not much larger than half a football field to take in silicon oxide and trace metals and output solar cells was plainly impossible.  
But clearly his reasoning had been wrong. He had persuaded Bree to set a watch on the building and the last few days had not seen any further construction or equipment moving into it. Indeed, equipment was moving out of it, and construction was starting on another white building halfway between the datacenter and the town.  
And not just solar cells, all manners of construction equipment seemed to be leaving the building. They couldn't be certain of it, but the watchers seemed to think that more trucks had left the building than had entered it.  
"I think you were right after all," Bree said, dropping wearily into the chair next to him, "the computer's gone global. "  
She gave Max the folder of news clippings and interview transcripts. It seemed that it wasn't just Max who had noticed the anomaly. Industry insiders were talking about BDC's sudden drop off in capital industry purchases. Branch datacenters were going up all over the world, in China, Russia, Australia and the UK. Even developing economies like India, the Middle East and more of the African countries had seen branches or at least attempts.  
And some of the most knowledgeable industry people who cooperated at the highest levels had noticed that BDC was buying less trucks, less computer parts and less of everything than it previously had. And was heavily buying into the raw materials markets.  
They were building their own computers, was the conclusion. And no one knew who was building the parts for BDC, all the industry personnel were wondering which of them had secret deals. Max looked at the pictures of the white cube sitting in the desert of black solar panels. He might have the answer to that question.  
Max patted the isolated antique computer on his desk with a slightly damaged harddrive plugged in to it. Well, at least writing the virus hadn't been difficult. Finding a vector to inject it into the system was the hard part, they were running out of time.  
He pulled out his pen and began to draft a letter to one Joseph Tagger.

Will summarized, "after the Guinea experiment with the Niger irrigation network, I think we have enough confidence in its safety to expand it worldwide. "  
"And can we give it to them?" Evelyn asked, "I don't mean the technology, because we still can't reveal that you are controlling the nanobots. Do we have the infrastructure ready to deploy it wherever it is asked?"  
"Yes, we can. I've established branch datacenters and production buildings in every major economic zone. BDC directly or indirectly controls a sufficient quantity of shipping and mining industries. We can roll out solar panel production fast enough to fuel Brightwater for everyone within five years. "  
"Then do it," Evelyn nodded, "We make it for free, on the condition that BDC controls the Brightwater, which we will anyway. "  
It took less than three days before the sky fell down. China, Russia and the Saudis nationalized their BDC branches. The European branch was mired in a maze of regulation and skepticism. And when the Chinese agents seizing Brightwood property found nothing in the offices and the industrial buildings, cries of hoax went up.  
The believers pointed at the Niger river experiment, which was still ongoing, the naysayers tried to investigate it but found nothing amiss. Brightwater still worked. Some people said it was magic and no one understood it. The only one that made any progress was a BDC-funded and run desalination plant in Australia. No experiments in their rivers were to be allowed. But at least that eased some of their seasonal water shortage.  
"What new emergency is it this time?" Evelyn sighed as the alarm on her portable tablet beeped.  
"The Guinea government have hacked into our production plant," Will said, "I am trying to regain control but it seems that Thomas has kept some of his background from me. I suspect that samples of our general purpose nanobots have been stolen. "  
"What?!" Evelyn sat up straight, "how could this happen?"  
"Thomas installed a rootkit on my control systems here in Guinea. I have managed to purge our systems now but I am sorry to admit that I did not detect this until they stole some. I have tried to trace the nanobots but they appear to have kept some of it off-grid. "  
A series of pictures, a time lapse photograph from a military satellite showed series of trucks and tankers going into a large building, much like the ones BDC had used to transport raw materials. It was surrounded by military troops, helicopters and more trucks rolled out in exchange for the materials to be armed and armoured by more conventional means. "They have been planning this," Will said, "the government must have adapted their Brightwater seizure plan to the more valuable industrial nanobots. "  
"Do you know what they're using it for?" Evelyn watched as the video caught up to real time and began to show the trucks being hooked up to tow artillery pieces.  
"I have detected petroleum refining activities as well as metal forming. They haven't figured out how to change its programming yet, but they'll be making more than just trucks and diesel soon. I predict they will be able to produce weapons, tanks and military aircraft within a week. If they haven't lost the nanobots, there'll be-" Will paused for a moment then corrected himself, "Sorry, I just detected nanobots active in Russia and the Middle East. It seems that they also had their agents aiding the Guinea government. I will not be surprised if the US and Europe also have their own samples on the way. "  
"This will lead to war, won't it?" Evelyn asked with a sinking feeling.  
"Perhaps not," Will said, "Negotiation could be possible. "  
Evelyn shook her head, "I don't know if that is true. Every government with a grievance will use the nanobots to arm their soldiers. You describe a world where anyone with enough metal can build a tank in their basement and you think there won't be war?"  
The face of Will in the handheld computer was silent.  
"Take it down. Destroy all the nanobots but the ones you control. You can do it, right?" Evelyn said.  
Will nodded. "I believe I can perfect the design for an insect-sized micro-drone to serve as my relay within three days. There are no guarantees in breakthroughs, but I estimate I can miniaturize the nanobots to be carried by them so the drones can self-replicate. "  
Evelyn looked down at the floor. This had all gone wrong so quickly. No, not yet. With this locust swarm of robotic insects, she could take it all away. Evelyn would not stand to see Will's gift to the world used to kill.

The "swarm" went completely unnoticed. Evelyn had steeled herself to see the world crawling with metallic insects, visions of unrestrained replication eating the biosphere plagued her dreams.  
None of it happened. Will kept their numbers down. Each drone was capable of surveillance, able to tap into all channels of communications, loaded with sophisticated cracking tools. Their greatest strength wasn't in the self-replication, Will found he didn't need to use it often. No, it was their ability to rebuild and repair themselves in virtually limitless ways that finally broke through the guarded compounds and disabled the industrial nanobots. Still, Will continued to search. Regardless of his reach, the world was large and a sample of nanobots sufficient to bootstrap the entire industry could fit into a single soft drink bottle.  
None of the action made it to the news and BDC slowly faded out of public consciousness as the miracle water became mundane through repetition. A few countries accepted BDC's offer to build desalination plants, and covert investigations were constantly on the prowl near BDC operations but Will always managed to observe and stymie their efforts.  
While the world was quiet, the tension was ratcheting higher behind the scenes. RIFT was on the move again, the FBI unwilling to arrest them. Will's tipoff on their home base he found via the micro-drones was ignored. It was worryingly close to Brightwood itself, his largest concentration of computing power, but Evelyn wouldn't hear of any plan to destroy them.  
And then an emergency happened. Like it always did.  
"What is it this time?" Evelyn asked. It was getting old, being woken up by the shrill alarm they agreed to use for emergency cases. Why couldn't world crisis happen at reasonable hours of the day?!  
"I have detected military preparations in the US and Russia territories. A number of what I suspect are missile silos have had recent activity. "  
"And?" Evelyn prompted Will when he paused.  
"I think they are making nuclear weapons. Inside the missile silos. Plutonium breeders are quite easy to build using the nanobots and I do not believe I have been successful in wiping all of it out. There was not much chance I could pierce the security of major powers without turning the swarm loose. "  
"Do you think they will actually use them?"  
"I doubt that very much," Will concluded, "no one wants to see the world burn, but each missile and counter-missile built requires an equivalent response from the other side. It's like a Cold War arms race, and neither the United States nor Russia know if the other side has working nanobots. So they must use it as much as they can and from my intercepted communications, they have not bothered to attack BDC because they wish to keep the action secret. And because I am suppressing the efforts of less developed countries to use the nanobots but not for them. "  
Will helpfully displayed what he could intercept and decrypt from the nuclear armed governments. The europeans seemed to be more defensive, with programs aimed at missile shields and nukes built to generate electromagnetic pulses to destroy other weapons. The US and Russia were running full tilt into an offensive nuclear program, fissile material prices were already rising in the last week.  
None of the other governments seemed to have succeeded at using Will's nanobots.  
Evelyn buried her face. She never wanted to deal with things like this. The nanobots were supposed to relieve people from work, not make weapons to kill each other with. And now the nuclear arms race was restarting. She felt like there was an imaginary sword hanging over the world, about to drop at any moment.  
A robot wheeled up to her with a hot chocolate on its head. Evelyn sipped it gratefully. Was there no other way?  
"Will, how far advanced are you with the surveillance robots?"  
"I've added a new information processor, but they are functionally the same. "  
"You can make them replicate more, right?" Evelyn asked slowly. She felt as if she was sliding down towards a conclusion she didn't like, but when the alternative was a potential world-ending nuclear war? Evelyn shook her head.  
"Yes, that would be trivial. It would greatly expand my capability. The industrial nanobots are more promising however. I have managed to harden them for use in less controlled environments and they are likely to survive for some time even in the open. "  
"A military base counts is quite a controlled environment, right? Especially in a nuclear missile silo," Evelyn finished her hot chocolate and returned it to the waiting robot.  
"Yes. "  
"Can you use your nanobots to infiltrate into missile silos? Can you be sure that you can find all missile silos on the planet?"  
"I believe so. I have managed to find many of the submarines and should be able to find the rest. The bombers are already comprised, there are no problems there. "  
Evelyn sighed, it looked like that was the only way. She didn't want to do this, but she had to prevent humans from killing themselves. "Destroy all the nuclear weapons. Make sure no one builds anymore. Try to do it so that they all happen at the same time. "  
Will nodded, "it will take a few weeks, but it shall be done. "

"ABC news brings to you a special report from our correspondents at the Pentagon. In the last few hours, the upper echelons of the military have been in a panic of some sort. People near military bases have reported lots of activity and even occasional explosions. The president has been in contact with leaders around the world in a top secret conference behind closed doors. We have some words from our reporter on site. "  
"Thank you, as you can see here, we expect the Pentagon to issue a press release soon and... whoa. Hold on a moment, this is big news. There are unconfirmed rumours that our nuclear capability has been heavily damaged. Some kind of attack on missile bases and warheads. Ah, the President is coming on now. "  
"Thank you for waiting ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure you're all very anxious. I have just now spoken to my peers in Russia, EU and China and we have all come to the same conclusion. Overnight, there has been a simultaneous attack across all missile silos, bombers and submarines across the world. The attacker, whose identity remains unknown, has been successful in destroying nuclear weapon stockpiles. We are currently assessing the damage but stress that there is no need for fear or panic. We are cooperating at the very highest levels to defuse any potential crises that may arise from this incident. "  
"Mr. President, has there been any indication as to what could cause such a crisis? Wasn't the security around nuclear weapons supposed to be impenetrable?"  
"We are still investigating the incident. I am sorry but I cannot disclose any details. "  
"Do you have any idea who is responsible for this attack?"  
"We are still investigating. Please, I cannot answer such questions. "  
"Is there any chance this might result in nuclear war?"  
"Madam, I doubt that very much," the president paused for a moment and looked off-stage for a cue, "we have yet to confirm the damage done but I have come to believe that the attacker has almost certainly managed to destroy the majority of nuclear weapons on this planet. There won't be a nuclear war because aren't nuclear weapons to fight it with anymore. The doomsday clock is about as far away from midnight as it can get. "  
The news flickered and suddenly changed back to the newsroom.  
"-Sorry to cut you off from the president's question and answer but ABC has just acquired more information. The charity responsible for Brightwater has claimed responsibility for this attack. I believe they have given a major data dump to all news organizations and onto the public internet. There is alot of information we have to digest but their statement is as follows:  
Brightwood Data Center claims responsibility for the simultaneous worldwide attack on nuclear missiles and weapons across the world. By this time, all nuclear weapons across the planet will have been disabled. Do not try to find out how, you will not succeed.  
We wanted to tackle the problem of water resources across the world, to address pollution and to fix the encroaching deserts. Part of our quest to do so made us deploy an experimental automated industry capability that we were unsure of. For this, we apologize even if no harm was done. We should have been more cautious in securing our technology from being misused.  
One month ago, a spy managed to steal a working copy of what we called a universal constructor. Our technology had advanced further into nanorobotics than anyone could have dreamed of even one year ago. We were experimenting with them to upgrade the infrastructure of Guinea to help our Brightwater project, in order to make them safe enough to use in the world. We hoped to relieve the human race of toil and labour. Your governments stole them from us. Even so, we still hoped that they would not misuse our technology.  
But we detected an increase in weapons production. Nuclear weapons were being made at an accelerating rate, you can see our evidence for yourself, the location of now useless missile silos, their cargo tallies and financial contracts. Challenge your leaders, they cannot deny the evidence. Our technology, meant to help the world, was being misused to make weapons that could destroy everyone on the planet. BDC finds this intolerable and we have taken steps to eliminate this threat. We hope you agree.  
If not, well, it's already done. No one will use BDC's technology to kill and hurt other human beings. We will not allow it. "

"We can't do that," Joseph shook his head, "There are quite alot of people who support BDC. The people see them as fighting the follies of governments. Quite a few of those people are Representatives too. "  
"Who cares, they don't know the danger, we are already almost too late!" Bree shouted at him, "this concerns more than just the president's job. The machine is growing faster than we thought possible. We must upload the virus now. "  
Max leaned back in the chair. Having just the three of them in one room was almost a miracle under normal circumstances but this was anything but normal. "Is that really necessary?" he wondered aloud.  
They both looked at him as if he was crazy.  
"I thought you were convinced we had to stop it," Bree hissed.  
"I don't think this is the machine's doing," Max said slowly, feeling his way around the vague idea, "at some level, the virus works because it exploits the gaps in the neural network. It means that some part of Will is in there. "  
They continued to stare at him.  
"Oh, I know he's dead. I know I can't get him back anymore than Evelyn can," Max wrung his hands unconsciously, "Even so, I think the machine has some essence of Will. He took very great care to avoid any deaths in the operation. That's not the work of an uncaring machine. "  
"You are very mistaken," Bree said, "You cannot hope to understand how a machine like that abomination thinks. "  
Max said, "Look, no machine would do this in such a risky way. Joseph, you said silo six nearly lost containment of fissile material but the silo doors sealed themselves shut and contained the radioactivity. It risked us capturing the nanobots that destroyed the missiles to save the lives of the soldiers in that base. That's deliberate life saving, not the work of a machine destroying an existential threat. I don't think Will is completely dead-..."  
Max trailed off as a thought occurred to him. It had the ring of truth. "Actually, it can. I don't think this is the machine's work. An AI with nanorobots wouldn't need to care about Earth. It could shoot itself to space and simply not have to deal with our messy planet. " He nodded to himself, he was definitely on the right path, "The machines can survive a nuclear winter that we can't. It doesn't have to care.  
No, it's not the AI doing this. This is Evelyn. She wanted to fix the world's pollution, to correct the biosphere. She wanted everyone to have food and water and not have to work. She was the one who wanted everything, not Will. She didn't know we were planning to use the nukes to generate EMPs to destroy the datacenters. She asked the machine to destroy the nuclear weapons so that we wouldn't kill ourselves. It all fits. "  
Bree and Joseph shared a long significant look.  
"Then we are all doomed," Bree said.  
"How so?" Max retorted. This was wonderful news! The machine wouldn't be killing them all, Evelyn was controlling it! She was going to try her best to solve the world's problems and she might actually have a shot at it. "This is great! Evelyn won't do anything to harm humans. This is as good as we ever wanted! We don't even have to destroy it. "  
"You, honestly, are an idiot," Bree snapped, and jerked a thumb at Joseph, "even he understands. This is why I hate tech fanatics. "  
Joseph answered Max's unasked question, "the road to hell is paved with the best intentions. "

Joseph Tagger had made a statement revealing Will's true nature, something that only Evelyn and Max had known for sure. He urged for worldwide regulation of BDC and Will. The view of the airport outside the private jet belied the frantic readjustment going on across the world and in BDC. BDC wasn't going to fade out of public memory for a long time yet, not after the fact that they had an uploaded human turned AI. At least Evelyn could be sure that Max was still safe and sound.  
A third of the population of the world was hailing BDC as a saviour against government folly and the other one third calling them AI overlords intending to rule over humanity. The last one third had their own reactions but mostly just watched the endless debates and speculation. AI Singularity became the most searched for term on the internet.  
Will was powerful enough to simply ignore them. With no need to conceal his nature, Will had decided to field autonomous robots for the construction of additional data centers in remote locations. It was suboptimal to use silicon for everything, including structural material, but it was the only bulk element that could be found anywhere. Still, with a worldwide fleet of tiny drones to deliver disabling industrial nanobots, Will could quite easily neutralize any attempt to remove him  
"-with the leading weather systems scientists and have made significant progress in the models. I'm also working with Nasa in designing a nuclear lightbulb rocket. Plus, a group of the leading charitable organizations are asking BDC for help in providing food and water to undeveloped countries. We also have many independent requests from all manners of basic research organizations asking for simulations and computing time, plus there's also the ITER fusion power and the European Blue Brain project among the engineering disciplines. The seven largest pharmaceutical companies have expressed interest in contracting our research capabilities to investigate drug targets for various human proteins and disease modeling. "  
"Well, we sure are popular now," Evelyn muttered to herself, "None of those are connected to the military? Good. Do it. "  
"I don't have enough computing power to address all of these requests. Many of these can consume a nearly unlimited amount of computing ability. I am asking which you wish to prioritize. " If anything, Will looked apologetic.  
Evelyn considered the very long list of options as the airplane began to take off. Hmm. "How much effort does it take for you to build additional computing power?"  
"A significant amount if I am doing all the construction and setup using robots. If I could let humans setup data centers and fabrication plants, then its quite trivial. I am sure the majority of the construction and manufacturing industries would be favourable towards working with us. "  
"And the risk? You must have learnt from the theft of our first attempt. "  
Will nodded and flashed an infographic on the display, "I did some development and was able to lock the nanobots into a single mode. I can produce single purpose nanobots that will take a defined input of raw material and produce a fixed output of product. They will have no self-replication capability and will eventually degrade from simple wear and tear within a year or two. I believe we can safely deploy these in our manufacturing plants that we trust less. Even if they were stolen, the nanobots shouldn't require containment and should take at least a few decades to reverse engineer with my obfuscation of their principles. "  
A few decades. That was long enough to fix so many problems. At by then, Will should be able to handle any fallout.  
"Alright then, where can we put your new data centers and manufacturing plants?"  
"We have multiple offers too. The one that should be fastest to complete is the San Francisco Bay Area," Evelyn grinned, good old Silicon Valley, "but it's in American jurisdiction and likely to have significant Rift activity. There's also an offer from the Japanese government to build a town from scratch to house data centers if we agree to involve ourselves with various Japanese manufacturers. The Singapore government is also organizing the companies holding unused space in skyscrapers although they haven't yet made an offer. A number of scientific research facilities are offering space for BDC to build cores if we will help them with simulations. "  
"How fast can you expand on all of them?"  
"None should take more than three months. The San Francisco section can be done in four weeks. The infrastructure needed to start a nanobot manufacturing plant is already present and that is the most time consuming portion of the operation. "  
"Expand as fast as you can then, but leave some computing and manufacturing power for..." Evelyn scanned down the list, "I think the Blue Brain project is mostly redundant now, so you can work with them to examine our data. That shouldn't take too much computing time. " Hm, fusion power. The dream of unlimited free energy. Perhaps Will might be able to do it. "Work with ITER as well. "  
Will nodded and Evelyn looked out of the window of the rising airplane. The world outside was getting smaller and smaller as she rose. Just like how it must appear to Will as he expanded his computing power and reach. She wondered if she would view humans as mere ants if Evelyn was the one who was shot all those months ago instead of Will.  
The glint of long metal cylinders on the ground drew her attention. Wait, those were missiles!  
"Will, what's that? Aren't those missiles?! Are they going to shoot us down?"  
"There is no need to worry, Evelyn," Will's ever-calm voice reassured her, "the missiles can't fire. I have hacked their targeting software and tracking devices. They're busy dealing with a computer glitch right now. Relax, Evelyn, I can keep you safe. "  
Evelyn stared at the little black dots scurrying around the large missiles. A small smile crept on her face and before she knew it, she was laughing. "A computer glitch! That's genius. "  
"I aim to please," Will grinned.  
Evelyn sighed and looked out at the city of Guinea once again. The smile faded as she considered the rundown buildings amid the taller towers. "Will, do also work with the charities providing food and water to the poor. "  
Yes, she mustn't forget that the unfortunate still existed. Evelyn had wanted an AI to solve the world's problems and one of the most pressing was the people dying every day from want.  
Will still wasn't powerful enough to do it all. But it was only a matter of time.


End file.
